There, now, reader, we have taken a stroll through the cla.s.sical old city of St. Domingo--a piece of good fortune, which falls to the lot of very few. Its romantic history seems to have been forgotten; it has fallen into the hands of a mongrel race of blacks and whites, and is rarely visited for any other purpose than that of trade. The negro and the mulatto in this oldest of American cities are thought rather more of than the white man, and the Yankee skipper finds in it, a congenial mart, in which to vend his cheese and his codfish, and distribute his tracts--political and moral--and put forth his patent medicines!
We did not get under way, the next morning, until eight o"clock, as the supplies from the butchers and fruiterers could not be gotten on board at an earlier hour. Bartelli came off from the market, loaded as usual, bringing with him a bunch of wild pigeons, very similar to those found in our forests, and some excellent cigars. The flavor of the latter is not quite equal to those of the Havana, but they are mild and pleasant smokers. He brought off, also, a specimen of the Haytian paper money, worth five cents on the dollar. Like the American greenback, it is the offshoot of revolution and political corruption.
As eight o"clock struck, turning out of the ship the motley crowd of negroes and mulattoes who had come off to trade with the sailors, we tripped our anchor, and turning the ship"s head again to the eastward, gave her the steam. The day was fine, and the sea smooth, and we had a picturesque run along the Haytian coast, for the rest of the day. The coast is generally clean, what few dangers there are being all visible.
The only sails sighted were fishing-boats and small coasters laden with farm produce, running down to St. Domingo for a market. At times a number of these were in sight, and the effect was very pleasing. The coasts of Hayti abound in fish, and as there is a succession of fruits all the year round, it is the paradise of the negro. A canoe and a fishing-line, or cast-net, and a few plantain and mango-trees supply his table; and two or three times a year, he cuts a mahogany log, and floats it down the little mountain streams, to the coast, where he sells it for paper money enough to buy him a few yards of cotton cloth, or calico. _Voila tout!_
We entered the Mona Pa.s.sage at half-past eight P. M. It was unguarded as before. During the night, we let our steam go down, to give the engineer an opportunity of s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up the cylinder-head. Under way again before daylight. The weather continued fine, and we began again to fall in with sails. They were all neutral, however. We spoke a Spanish schooner, among the rest, and gave her the longitude. As soon as we had well cleared the pa.s.sage, we banked fires, and lowering the propeller, put the ship under sail. On Sunday, February 1st, we had our first muster since leaving Jamaica. We had been out now a week, and in that time I had gotten my crew straightened up again. The rum had been pretty well worked out of them; most of the black rings around the eyes had disappeared, and beards had been trimmed, and heads combed. The court-martial which had been trying the few culprits, that had been retained for trial, had gotten through its labors, and been dissolved, and Jack, as he answered to his name, and walked around the capstan, was "himself again," in all the glory of white "ducks," polished shoes, straw hats, and streaming ribbons. No more than two or three desertions had occurred, out of the whole crew, and this was very gratifying.
The next day, we had an alarm of fire on board. It was near twelve o"clock. I happened to be standing on the horse-block, at the time, observing the sun for lat.i.tude, when suddenly I heard a confusion of voices below, and simultaneously the officer of the deck, with evident alarm depicted in his countenance, came running to me, and said, "The ship is on fire, sir!" This is an alarm that always startles the seaman. The "fire-bell in the night" is sufficiently alarming to the landsman, but the cry of fire at sea imports a matter of life and death--especially in a ship of war, whose boats are always insufficient to carry off her crew, and whose magazine and sh.e.l.l-rooms are filled with powder, and the loaded missiles of death. The fire-bell on board a ship of war, whose crew is always organized as a fire company, points out the duty of every officer and man in such an emergency. The first thing to be done is to "beat to quarters," and accordingly I gave this order to the officer; but before the drummer could brace his drum for the operation, it was announced that all danger had disappeared. When we had a little leisure to look into the facts, it appeared, that the alarm had arisen from the carelessness of the "captain of the hold," who, in violation of the orders of the ship, had taken a naked light below with him, into the spirit-room, to pump off the grog by. The candle had ignited some of the escaping gas, but the flame was suppressed almost immediately. The captain of the hold, who is a petty officer, paid the penalty of his disobedience, by being dismissed from his office; and in half an hour, the thing was forgotten.
Since leaving the Mona Pa.s.sage, we had been steering about N. N. W., or as near north as the trade-wind would permit us. We expected, as a matter of course, to meet with the usual calms, as we came up with the Tropic of Cancer, but the north-east trade, instead of dying away, as we had expected, hauled to the south-east, and shot us across the calm-belt, with a fine breeze all the way. We carried this wind to the twenty-seventh parallel, when we took, with scarcely any intermission, a fresh north-wester. This does not often happen in the experience of the navigator, as the reader has seen, when he has before been crossing the calm-belts with us.
On the 3d of February, we made our first capture since leaving St.
Domingo. It was the schooner _Palmetto_, bound from New York to St.
John"s, in the island of Porto Rico. We gave chase to her, soon after breakfast, and came up with her about half-past one P. M. It was a fair trial of heels, with a fine breeze and a smooth sea; both vessels being on a wind; and it was beautiful to see how the _Alabama_ performed her task, working up into the wind"s eye, and overhauling her enemy, with the ease of a trained courser coming up with a saddle-nag. There was no attempt to cover the cargo of the _Palmetto_. The enemy merchants seemed to have come to the conclusion, that it was no longer of any use to prepare bogus certificates, and that they might as well let their cargoes run the chances of war, without them. Upon examination of the papers of the schooner, it appeared that the cargo was shipped by the Spanish house of Harques & Maseras, domiciled, and doing business in New York, to Vincent Brothers, in San Juan, Porto Rico, on joint account; the shippers owning one third, and the consignee two thirds. The case came, therefore, under the rule applied in a former case, viz., that when partners reside, some in a belligerent, and some in a neutral country, the property of all of them, which has any connection with the house in the belligerent country, is liable to confiscation. (3 _Phillimore_, 605, and 1 _Robinson_, 1, 14, 19. Also, _The Susa_, _ib._ 255.) Getting on board from the _Palmetto_, such articles of provisions--and she was chiefly provision-laden--as we needed, we applied the torch to her about sunset, and filled away, and made sail.
The next afternoon we sighted a sail on our weather-bow, close hauled, like ourselves, and continued to gain upon her, until night shut her out from view, when we discontinued the chase. We were satisfied from her appearance, that she was neutral, or we should, probably, have expended a little steam upon her. At night the weather set in thick, and the wind blew so fresh from the north-east, that we took a single reef in the topsails. This bad weather continued for the next two or three days, reducing us, a part of the time, to close reefs. The reader is probably aware, that a ship bound from the West Indies to the coast of Brazil, is compelled to run up into the "variables," and make sufficient easting, to enable her to weather Cape St. Roque. This is what the _Alabama_ is now doing--working her way to the eastward, on the parallel of about 30. We observed on the 20th of February, in lat.i.tude 28 32"; the longitude being 45 05".
The next day, the weather being very fine, with the wind light from the southward and eastward, a sail was descried from aloft, and soon afterward another, and another, until four were seen. We gave chase to the first sail announced; standing to the eastward, in pursuit of her, for an hour or two, but she being a long distance ahead, and to windward, and the chase being likely, in consequence, to be long, and to draw us away from the other three sail, besides, we abandoned it, and gave chase to two of the latter. These were fine, tall ships, under a cloud of canvas, steering, one to the eastward, and the other to the westward. Being quite sure that they were Americans, and the wind falling light, we got up steam for the chase. Coming up with the eastward-bound ship, we hove her to, but not until we had thrown a couple of shot at her, in succession--the latter whizzing over the master"s head on the quarter-deck. She was evidently endeavoring to draw us after her, as far to the eastward as possible, to give her consort, with whom she had spoken, and who was running, as the reader has seen, to the westward, an opportunity to escape. Throwing a boat"s crew hastily on board of her, and directing the prize-master to follow us, we now wheeled in pursuit of the other fugitive. The latter was, by this time, fifteen miles distant--being hull down--and was running before the wind with studding sails, "alow and aloft." Fortunately for the _Alabama_, as before remarked, the wind was light, or the chase might have put darkness between us, before we came up with her. As it was, it was three P. M. before we overhauled her, and we had run our other prize nearly out of sight. She was less obstinate than her consort, and shortened sail, and hove to, at the first gun, hoisting the United States colors at her peak. She proved to be the bark _Olive Jane_, of New York, from Bordeaux, bound to New York, with an a.s.sorted cargo of French wines, and brandies, canned meats, fruits, and other delicacies. There was no attempt to cover the cargo. There were a great many shippers. Some few of these had consigned their goods to their own order, but most of the consignments were to New York houses. It is possible that some of the consignments, "to order," really belonged to French owners, but if so, I was relieved from the necessity of making the investigation, by the carelessness of the owners themselves, who had taken no pains to protect their property, by proper doc.u.mentary evidence of its neutral character.
In the absence of sworn proof, as before remarked, the rule of law is imperative, that all property found on board of an enemy"s ship, is presumed to belong to the enemy. I acted upon this presumption, and set fire to the _Olive Jane_. What a splendid libation was here to old Neptune! I did not permit so much as a bottle of brandy, or a basket of champagne to be brought on board the _Alabama_, though, I doubt not, the throats of some of my vagabonds, who had so recently cooled off, from the big frolic they had had in Jamaica, were as dry as powder-horns. There were the richest of olives, and _pates de fois gras_, going to tickle the palates of the New York shoddyites, and other _nouveau-riche_ plebeians, destroyed in that terrible conflagration. I should have permitted Bartelli, and the other stewards to have a short run among these delicacies, but for the wine and the brandy. A Fouche could not have prevented the boats" crews from smuggling some of it on board, and then I might have had another Martinique grog-watering on my hands.
Amid the crackling of flames, the bursting of brandy casks, the shrivelling of sails, as they were touched by the fire, and the tumbling of the lighter spars of the _Olive Jane_ from aloft, we turned our head to the eastward again, and rejoined our first prize, coming up with her just as the shades of evening were closing in. I had now a little leisure to look into _her_ character. She, like the _Olive Jane_, had shown me the "old flag," and that, of course, had set at rest all doubts as to the nationality of the ship. There was as little doubt, as soon appeared, about the cargo. The ship was the _Golden Eagle_, and I had overhauled her near the termination of a long voyage. She had sailed from San Francisco, in ballast, for Howland"s Island, in the Pacific; a guano island of which some adventurous Yankees had taken possession. There she had taken in a cargo of guano, for Cork and a market; the guano being owned by, and consigned to the order of the American Guano Company. This ship had buffeted the gales of the frozen lat.i.tudes of Cape Horn, threaded her pathway among its icebergs, been parched with the heats of the tropic, and drenched with the rains of the equator, to fall into the hands of her enemy, only a few hundred miles from her port. But such is the fortune of war. It seemed a pity, too, to destroy so large a cargo of a fertilizer, that would else have made fields stagger under a wealth of grain. But those fields would be the fields of the enemy; or if it did not fertilize his fields, its sale would pour a stream of gold into his coffers; and it was my business upon the high seas, to cut off, or dry up this stream of gold. The torch followed the examination of the papers. The reader may, perhaps, by this time have remarked, how fond the Yankees had become of the qualifying adjective, "golden," as a prefix to the names of their ships. I had burned the _Golden Rocket_, the _Golden Rule_, and the _Golden Eagle_.
We were now in lat.i.tude 30, and longitude 40, and if the curious reader will refer to a map, or chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, he will see that we are on the charmed "crossing," leading to the coast of Brazil. By "crossing" is meant the point at which the ship"s course crosses a given parallel of lat.i.tude. We must not, for instance, cross the thirtieth parallel, going southward, until we have reached a certain meridian--say that of 40 W. If we do, the north-east trade-wind will pinch us, and perhaps prevent us from weathering Cape St. Roque.
And when we reach the equator, there is another crossing recommended to the mariner, as being most appropriate to his purpose. Thus it is, that the roads upon the sea have been blazed out, as it were--the blazes not being exactly cut upon the forest-trees, but upon parallels and meridians.
The chief blazer of these roads, is an American, of whom all Americans should be proud--Captain Maury, before mentioned in these pages. He has so effectually performed his task, in his "Wind and Current Charts," that there is little left to be desired. The most unscientific and practical navigator, may, by the aid of these charts, find the road he is in quest of. Maury has been, in an eminent degree, the benefactor of the very men who became most abusive of him, when they found that he, like other Southern statesmen--for he is a statesman as well as sailor--was obliged to preserve his self-respect, by spitting upon the "old flag." He has saved every Yankee ship, by shortening her route, on every distant voyage she makes, thousands of dollars. The greedy ship-owners pocket the dollars, and abuse the philosopher.[2]
CHAPTER XLII.
THE "CROSSING" OF THE THIRTIETH PARALLEL--THE TOLL-GATE UPON THE SEA--HOW THE TRAVELLERS Pa.s.s ALONG THE HIGHWAY--CAPTURE OF THE WASHINGTON; THE JOHN A. PARKS; THE BATHIAH THAYER; THE PUNJAUB; THE MORNING STAR; THE KINGFISHER; THE CHARLES HILL; AND THE NORA--CROSSES THE EQUATOR--CAPTURE OF THE LOUISA HATCH--ARRIVAL AT FERNANDO DE NORONHA.
Reaching the blazed road, of which I spoke in the last chapter, I shortened sail, at the crossing mentioned, that I might waylay such of the pa.s.sengers as chanced to be enemies. There were a great many ships pa.s.sing, both ways, on this road, some going to the Pacific, or the Far East, and others returning from those distant points; but they were nearly all neutral. The American ships, having, by this time, become thoroughly alarmed, especially since they learned that neither English sealing-wax, nor Admiral Milne could save them, had dodged the highways, as skulkers and thieves are wont to do, and taken to the open fields and by-ways for safety. On the day after the capture of the _Olive Jane_ and _Golden Eagle_, the weather being cloudy and rainy, and the wind light, four more sail were seen--all European bound. At eight A. M. we showed the United States colors to one of them, which proved to be a French bark. It now became calm, and we were compelled to get up steam, to overhaul the rest.
They lay long distances apart, and we were several hours in pa.s.sing from one to the other. They were all Englishmen, with various histories and destinations, one of them--a fine frigate-built ship--being a Melbourne and Liverpool packet. We received a paper from her, printed at the antipodes, but there was not much in it, besides the proceedings of the Australian Parliament, news from the gold-diggings, and the price of wool; in neither of which subjects were we much interested.
On the next day but a solitary pa.s.senger came over the road. It was late at night when she made her appearance--there being a bright moon and a brisk breeze. We made sail in chase, and the chase, taking the alarm, gave us a very pretty run for a few hours. We overhauled her, however, at length, and fired the usual blank cartridge, to heave her to. She was an hermaphrodite brig, and might be, for aught we could see, in the uncertain light, American. The gun had no effect. We waited a few minutes for a response, but none coming, we fired again--sending a shot whizzing, this time, over the little craft. Still no response. We were now only a few hundred yards distant. What could the fellow mean? All was as silent on board the chase as death, and not a tack or sheet had been started. We ran now almost on board of her, and hailing her, commanded her to heave to.
Great confusion followed. We could hear voices speaking in a foreign tongue, and presently a disorderly array of sails whipping and flapping in the wind, and of yards swinging to and fro, presented itself. At last the little craft managed to come to the wind, and make a halt. She proved to be a Portuguese brig, and the crew had been so alarmed, at being chased and fired at, by night, as to lose all presence of mind, and become incapable of any action whatever, until they were somewhat rea.s.sured, by the near presence of our ship and the sound of our voices. She was bound from Pernambuco to Lisbon, with a cargo of hides and sugar. It was, indeed, something like a ghost-chase, to see the _Alabama_ coming, in the dead of night after the little craft, with her seven-league boots on, and those awful trysails of hers spread out in the moonlight like so many winding-sheets.
On the day after this adventure, a Dutch bark and an English brig came along; and on the same night, we boarded the English four-master, the _Sarah Sands_, from the East Indies for Falmouth. At daylight, the next morning, the look-out at the mast-head began to cry sails, until he reported as many as seven in sight at one time. They were all European bound, and were jogging along, in company, following Maury"s blazes, like so many pa.s.sengers on a highway. The _Alabama_ stood like a toll-gate before them, and though we could not take toll of them, as they were all neutral, we made each traveller show us his pa.s.sport, as he came up. One obstinate fellow--a Hamburger--refused to show us his colors, until he was commanded to do so by a gun. I made it a practice to punish these unmannerly fellows, for their want of civility. On the present occasion, the Hamburger was detained a considerable time, whilst I exercised, at my leisure, my belligerent right of _viseing_ his papers. When his travelling companions were some miles ahead of him, I told the surly fellow to pick up his hat and be off.
On the next day, being still in lat.i.tude 30, and longitude 40, or at the "crossing," an English and an American ship came along. The Englishman saluted us civilly as he pa.s.sed. He was from the East Indies, laden with silks and wines. But the American, seeing that we were under short sail--though the weather was fine--resting by the wayside, as it were, and remembering that there was a little unpleasantness between the North and South, fought rather shy of us, and endeavored to get out of the way of possible harm. She was a fine, large ship, and the moment she showed an intention not to pa.s.s through the toll-gate, we made sail in pursuit. She had heels, but they were not quite as clean as the _Alabama"s_, and we came up with her, in the course of two or three hours; she having approached pretty close, before she smelt the rat. She was obstinate, and compelled me to wet the people on her p.o.o.p, by the spray of a shot, before she would acknowledge that she was beaten. The shower-bath made a stir among the bystanders; there was a running hither and thither, a letting go of sheets and halliards, and pretty soon the main-yard swung aback, and the stars and stripes were seen ascending to the stranger"s peak. When the boarding-officer brought the master of the captured ship on board, with his papers, she proved to be the ship _Washington_, of New York, from the Chincha Islands, bound to Antwerp, with a cargo of guano, laden on account of the Peruvian government, and consigned to its agent at Antwerp, for sale. Being unable to destroy the ship, because of the neutral ownership of her cargo, I released her on ransom-bond, sent my prisoners on board of her to be landed, and permitted her to depart. This capture was made on the 27th of February. On the 28th we overhauled two English ships, from the East Indies, homeward bound, and a French ship, from Batavia, for Nantes. The weather continued very fine, and we had had a uniformly high barometer, ever since we had reached the "crossing."
The morning of the 1st of March dawned charmingly, with a very light breeze. The night had been rather dark, and we had been lying-to under topsails. In the darkness of the night, an enemy"s ship had approached us unawares. She had been following the blazes, without seeing the toll-gate, and the revelations made by the morning"s light, must have startled her; for she found herself within half a mile of an exceedingly saucy-looking gunboat, lying in wait for somebody, or something. It was nearly calm, and she could not help herself if she would. On the other hand, the gunboat was delighted to see a tall ship, whose masts tapered like a lady"s fingers, arrayed in the whitest of petticoats--to carry out our figure--and which, from the course she was steering, was evidently just out from Yankee-land, with that mail on board, which we had been anxiously looking for, for several days past. We were in the midst of the scrubbing and cleaning of the morning watch, and to effect the capture, it was not even necessary to lay aside a holy-stone, or a scrubbing-brush. A gun and a Confederate flag, were all that was required to bring the tall ship to a halt, and remove her doubts, if she had had any. She was the _John A.
Parks_, of Hallowell, Maine.
The cargo of the _Parks_ consisted of white pine lumber which she had taken on board at New York, and she was bound to Montevideo, or Buenos Ayres, as the consignee might elect. There was an affidavit found among her papers, made by one Snyder, before a Mr. Edwards Pierrepont, who appears to have been acting as British Consul, claiming that the cargo was shipped on account of a London house. The real facts of the case, however, as gathered from the correspondence, and the testimony of the master, were, that one Davidson, a lumber dealer in New York had chartered the ship, and shipped the lumber, in the usual course of his business, to the parties in Montevideo; that he had paid most of the freight, in advance, and insured himself against the _war risk_, both upon the cargo and the freight. The manner in which this case was "put up," in the papers, was an improvement upon some others I had examined. The New York merchants were evidently becoming expert in the preparation of bogus certificates. It was no longer merely stated that the property belonged to "neutral owners,"
but the owners themselves were named. In short, the certificate found on board the _Parks_ was in due form, but unfortunately for the parties who contrived the clever little plot, the master forgot to throw overboard his letter-bag, and among the letters found in that bag, was one written by Davidson, giving instructions to the consignees, in which the following expressions occur: "The cargo of the _John A. Parks_, I shall have certified to, by the British Consul, as the property of British subjects.
You will find it a very good cargo, and should command the highest prices." By the time that I had finished the examination of the case, Bartelli announced breakfast, and I invited my Hallowell friend to take a cup of coffee with me, telling him, at the same time, that I should burn his ship. As well as I recollect, he declined the coffee, but I am quite certain that the ship was burned. The carpenter of the _Alabama_ was thrown into ecstasies by this capture. All the other departments of the ship had been kept well supplied, except his own. The paymaster, who was also commissary, the boatswain, the sailmaker, had all been "plundering"
the enemy quite extensively, but no "boards" had come along, until now, for the poor carpenter. Here they were at last, however, and if I had not put some restraint upon my zealous officer of the adze and chisel, I believe he would have converted the _Alabama_ into a lumberman.
We received from the _Parks_, sure enough, the mail we had been waiting for. There must have been a barrel-full, and more of newspapers and periodicals, going to the _Montevideans_ and _Buenos Ayreans_--many of them in the best of Spanish, and all explaining the "great moral ideas,"
on which the Southern people were being robbed of their property, and having their throats cut. We gleaned one gratifying piece of intelligence, however, from these papers. "The Pirate _Florida_" had put to sea from Mobile, to a.s.sist the "British Pirate," in plundering, and burning the "innocent merchant-ships of the United States, pursuing their peaceful commerce," as Mr. Charles Francis Adams, so often, and so _naively_ expressed it to Earl Russell. Whilst the _Parks_ was still burning, an English bark pa.s.sed through the toll-gate, the captain of which was prevailed upon, to take the master of the burning ship, his wife, and two nephews, to London. We were glad, on the poor lady"s account, that she was so soon relieved from the discomforts of a small and crowded ship.
The next traveller that came along was the _Bethiah Thayer_, of Rockland, Maine, last from the Chincha Islands, with a cargo of guano for the Peruvian Government. The cargo being properly doc.u.mented, I put the ship under ransom-bond, and permitted her to pa.s.s. It was Sunday; the _Bethiah_ was dressed in a new suit of cotton canvas, and looked quite demure and saint-like, while her papers were being examined. I have no doubt if I had questioned her master, that he would have been found to have voted for Breckinridge.
I now resolved to fill away, stand down toward the equator, and hold myself stationary, for a few days, at the "crossing" of that famous great circle. I was far enough to the eastward, to make a free wind of the north-east trade, and we jogged along under topsails, making sail only when it became necessary to chase. We lost our fine weather almost immediately upon leaving the "crossing," and took a series of moderate gales--sometimes, however, reducing us to close reefs--which lasted us for a week or ten days, or until we began to approach the rains and calms of the equator. We met a number of sails on the road, and now and then chased one, but they all proved to be neutral. On the night of the 15th of March, at a few minutes before midnight, the weather being thick and murky, the look-out at the cat-head suddenly cried "sail ho! close aboard;" and in a few minutes a large ship pa.s.sed us on the opposite tack, within speaking distance. We hailed, but she pa.s.sed on like a goblin ship, without giving us any reply. She had all sails set, there was no one stirring on board of her, and the only light that was visible, was the one which twinkled in the binnacle. We wore ship with all expedition, shook the reefs out of the topsails, and made sail in pursuit. It took us some minutes to accomplish this, and by the time we were well under way, the stranger was nearly out of sight. Both ships were on a wind, however, and this, as the reader has seen, was the _Alabama"s_ best point of sailing. Our night-gla.s.ses soon began to tell the usual tale. We were overhauling the chase; and at a quarter past three, or a little before dawn, we were near enough to heave her to, with a gun. She proved to be the _Punjaub_, of Boston, from Calcutta for London. Her cargo consisted chiefly of jute and linseed, and was properly certificated as English property. The goods were, besides, of foreign growth, and were going from one English port to another. I released her on ransom-bond, and sent on board of her the prisoners from the last ship burned.
Soon after daylight, we gave chase to another sail in the E. S. E., with which we came up about eight A. M. She was an English ship, from the Mauritius, for Cork. She confirmed our suspicion, that the Yankee ships were avoiding, as a general rule, the beaten tracks, having spoken one of them on the "line," bound to the coast of Brazil, which had travelled as far east as the twenty-third meridian; or about four hundred miles out of her way. We were still standing to the southward, and on the 21st of March we were very near the sun, for while he was crossing the equator, we were in lat.i.tude 2 47" N.; our longitude being 26 W. On that day, the weather is thus recorded in my journal: "Cloudy, with squalls of rain, and the wind shifting, indicating that we have lost the "trades." It is pleasant to hear the thunder roll, for the first time in several months, sounding like the voice of an old friend; and the crew seem to enjoy a ducking from the heavy showers--rain having been a rare visitor of late." And on the next day, the following is the record: "Rains, and calms all day; the officers and crew alike, are paddling about the deck in bare feet, and enjoying the pelting of the rain, like young ducks. Three neutrals, in company, bound like ourselves, across the "line." They look, at a distance, with their drooping sails flapping idly in the calm, as disconsolate as wet barn-yard fowls at home, on a rainy day."
On the 23d of March, the weather being still as described, and very little change having taken place in our position, we made two more captures; the first, the _Morning Star_ of Boston, from Calcutta for London, and the second the whaling schooner _Kingfisher_, of Fairhaven, Ma.s.sachusetts. The cargo of the _Morning Star_ being in the same category as that of the _Punjaub_, we released her also, on ransom-bond. The _Kingfisher_ we burned. This adventurous little whaler had a crew of twenty-three persons, all of whom were Portuguese, except the master, and mate, and one or two boat-steerers. We set fire to her just at nightfall, and the conflagration presented a weird-like spectacle on the "line," amid the rumbling of thunder, the shifting, but ever black scenery, of the nimbi, or rain clouds, and the pouring and dashing of torrents of rain. Sometimes the flames would cower beneath a drenching shower, as though they had been subdued, but in a moment afterward, they would shoot up, mast-head high, as brightly and ravenously as before. The oil in her hold kept her burning on the surface of the still sea, until a late hour at night.
On the next day, we boarded, as usual, a number of neutral ships, of different nationalities, some going south, and some going north. We were at the "crossing" of the equator, "blazed" by Maury, and with the main topsail at the mast, were reviewing, as it were, the commerce of the world. We were never out of sight of ships. They were pa.s.sing, by ones, and twos, and threes, in constant succession, wreathed in rain and mist, and presenting frequently the idea of a funeral procession. The honest traders were all there, except the most honest of them all--the Yankees--and they were a little afraid of the police. Still we managed to catch a rogue now and then.
On the second day after burning the _Kingfisher_, we made two more captures. Late in the afternoon of that day, we descried two large ships approaching us, in company. They came along lovingly, arm-in-arm, as it were, as though in the light airs and calms that were prevailing, they had been having a friendly chat, or one of the masters had been dining on board of the other. They were evidently American ships, and had most likely been having a cosy talk about the war. The "sainted" Abraham"s Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation was the favorite topic of the day, as we had learned from the mail-bags of the _Parks_, and perchance they had been discussing that; or perhaps the skippers were congratulating themselves upon having escaped the _Alabama_; they probably supposing her to be at the other toll-gate still. Whatever may have been the subject of their discourse, they evidently p.r.i.c.ked up their ears, as soon as they saw the _Alabama_, stripped like a gentleman who was taking it coolly, with nothing but her topsails set, and lying across their path. They separated gradually; and quietly, and by stealth, a few more studding-sails were sent up aloft.
It was time now for the _Alabama_ to move. Her main yard was swung to the full, sailors might have been seen running up aloft, like so many squirrels, who thought they saw "nuts" ahead, and pretty soon, upon a given signal the top-gallant sails and royals might have been seen fluttering in the breeze, for a moment, and then extending themselves to their respective yard-arms. A whistle or two from the boatswain and his mates, and the trysail sheets are drawn aft, and the _Alabama_ has on those seven-league boots which the reader has seen her draw on so often before. A stride or two, and the thing is done. First, the _Charles Hill_, of Boston, shortens sail, and runs up the "old flag," and then the _Nora_, of the same pious city, follows her example. They were both laden with salt, and both from Liverpool. The _Hill_ was bound to Montevideo, or Buenos Ayres, and there was no attempt to cover her cargo. The _Nora_ was bound to Calcutta, under a charter-party with one W. N. de Mattos. In the bill of lading, the cargo was consigned to order, and on the back of the instrument was the following indors.e.m.e.nt: "I hereby certify, that the salt shipped on board the _Nora_, is the property of W. N. de Mattos, of London, and that the said W. N. de Mattos is a British subject, and was so at the time of the shipment." This certificate was signed by one H. E.
Folk, and at the bottom of the certificate were the words, "R. C. Gardner, Mayor"--presumed to mean the Mayor of Liverpool.
Here was a more awkward attempt to cover a cargo than any of my Yankee friends of New York or Boston had ever made. There was very little doubt that the salt was English-owned, but the certificate, I have recited, did not amount even to an _ex parte_ affidavit, it not being sworn to. As a matter of course, I was bound to presume the property to be enemy, it being found, unprotected by any legal evidence, in an enemy"s ship. The _Hill_ and the _Nora_ were, therefore, both consigned to the flames, after we had gotten on board from them such articles as we stood in need of. We received from the two ships between thirty and forty tons of coal, or about two days" steaming. It took us nearly all the following day to transport it in our small boats, and we did not set fire to the ships until five in the afternoon. We received, also, half a dozen recruits from them. I had now quite as many men as I wanted.
Among the papers of the _Hill_ was found the following brief letter of instructions from her owner to her master. It is dated from the good city of Boston, and was written while the ship was lying at that other good city, Philadelphia. It is addressed to Captain F. Percival, and goes on to say:--
"DEAR SIR:--I have received your several letters from Philadelphia.
As a rebel privateer has burned several American ships, it may be as well if you can have your bills of lading indorsed as English property, and have your cargo certified to by the British Consul."
Such nice little missives as these, written from one city of "grand moral ideas," to another city, whose ideas were no less grand or moral, quietly instructing ship-masters to commit perjury, were of great a.s.sistance to me, when, in the cla.s.sical words of the New York "Commercial Advertiser,"
I had a "Yankee hash" to deal with.
On the 29th of March we crossed the equator. The event is thus recorded in my journal: "Crossed the equator at five P. M. in the midst of a dense rain-squall, with lowering, black clouds, and the wind from the south-west. We were in chase of a sail at the time, but lost her in the gloom. It rained all night, with light airs and calms. We have experienced a south-easterly current, setting at the rate of a knot and a half the hour, for the last twenty-four-hours." We made our crossing a little farther to the eastward than usual--26--on purpose to counteract the Yankee dodge spoken of a little while back. We now encountered a variety of currents, some setting to the south-east as just mentioned, others to the east, others to the south, until finally we fell in with the great equatorial current setting to the westward.
The study of the phenomena of the currents, is one of the most interesting that can engage the attention of the marine philosopher. We have already had occasion to explain the circulation of the atmosphere--how the wind "cometh and goeth," not at random, but in obedience to certain well-defined natural laws. The circulation of the sea is no less regular than that of the atmosphere, and has equally important offices to perform.
If the sea were a stagnant ma.s.s of waters, some portions of the earth which now enjoy temperate climates, and teem with millions of population in the enjoyment of an abundant fauna and flora, would be almost uninhabitable because of the extreme cold. Some portions of the sea would dry up, and become beds of salt, and others again would, from the superabundance of precipitation, become fresh, or nearly so. In short, there would be a general disturbance of the harmonies of creation. To obviate this, and to put the sea in motion, various agencies have been set at work by the great Architect; chief among which is the unequal distribution of heat over the earth"s surface. We have already called the sun the Father of the Winds; he is equally the father of the currents. The warm water of the equator is constantly flowing off to the poles, and the cold water of the poles flowing back, as undercurrents, to the equator.
This flow is not directly north, or directly south, but by a variety of tortuous channels. The different depths of the ocean, the obstructions of islands, and continents, clouds and sunshine, and a great many other agencies, combine to give this tortuosity and seeming irregularity to the currents.
Let us take an example. The _Alabama_ has just experienced a south-east current in a locality where the current sets, as a general rule, to the westward. How are we to account for this? It may be due to a variety of causes, all working in harmony, however, with the general design. In the first place, it may be a counter-current going to fill the place left vacant by some other current; for, as a matter of course, when a given quant.i.ty of water flows away from a place, the same quant.i.ty must flow back to it. Or it may be a princ.i.p.al, and not an accessory current, set in motion, say by heat. Let us see how easily this may be accomplished.
Suppose a dense canopy of clouds to overshadow some considerable s.p.a.ce of the sea, for a day, or it may be, for a few hours only. Whilst the rays of the sun are shut out from this s.p.a.ce, they are pouring down their heat with tropical fervor, say to the south of this cloud-bank. Under the cloud-bank the water is cooling, beyond the bank it is being heated. Under the bank evaporation has ceased almost altogether, beyond the bank it is going on at the rate of about an inch in twenty-four hours. Here are powerful agencies at work, changing both the temperature, and specific gravity of the waters.
Waters to be at rest must have the same temperature and specific gravity.
These waters therefore cannot remain at rest, and a current is the consequence. To-morrow, perhaps, the process will be reversed, the cloud and the sunshine changing places, and the current flowing in a contrary direction. These are local disturbances of the system of oceanic circulation--little venous derangements, as it were, the great arterial system not being materially affected by them.
There are other exceedingly beautiful agencies at work, on a smaller scale, to disturb the oceanic equilibrium, and set the waters in motion.
It has puzzled philosophers to account for the saltness of the sea.
Whatever may be its cause, it plays a very important part in giving vitality to its circulation. If sea-water were fresh, evaporation would not produce any change in its specific gravity. One element of motion, therefore, would be wanted. But being salt, and the salts not being taken up by the thirsty air, in the process of evaporation, every rain-drop that is withdrawn from it, helps to put the currents in motion.
But these are surface operations; let us dive beneath the surface, and witness some of the wonders that are going on in the depths below. We have before shown the reader, the coralline insect, that wonderful little stone-mason of the sea, which, in the hands of Providence, is the architect of islands and continents. The sea-water is the quarry from which this little toiler extracts his tiny blocks of masonry. If the water were fresh, it would not hold the materials in solution, which he needs for his work. But being salt, it has just the materials which he needs.